There is a serious information asymmetry between internal managers and outside investors in the process during IPOs. One mechanism that mitigates this information asymmetry is a high quality auditor. Since prior research document auditors’ effect on newly listed firms at the IPO year, what has not yet been revealed in previous studies is the behavior of firms and auditors after listing. In this study, we investigate (i) the firms tendency of contracting with Big N auditors, and (ii) the effect of Big N auditors on accounting quality after the years of IPOs. Using a sample of 7,678 (1,892 firm-years of after IPOs, and 5,786 control firm-years) KOSDAQ observations between 2002 and 2012, we find that the likelihood of contracting with Big N auditor lasts only for two years after IPO compare to that of non-IPO control years. Secondly, we find that the effect of Big N auditors on clients’ earnings management lasts for a very short period after IPO. These findings suggest that although prior literature argue that Big N auditors reduce earnings management of their clients, at least the period right after IPO, it is not consistent. Our study contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, we provide new evidences of firms’ auditor ion decisions by investigating years after the listing. In second, as an evidence of accruals reversal, we document decrease in discretionary accruals after IPOs. Third, we find that there is not always a positive relation between Big N auditor and accounting quality by showing the insignificant Big N auditor effect after IPOs. Our results also suggest several implications to IPO related stakeholders. First, to IPO firms, we provide evidences that decisions of hiring auditors affect firms earnings. Also, lead IPO underwriters may consider how these decisions influence future performance. Second, investors may want to use information not only in the preofferings but also after public offerings. Our study insists that auditor hiring decisions affects their own welfare. Finally, accounting standard setters may find these results useful for evaluating how much discretion they should allow corporate managers to hire auditors. In addition, our result casts doubt on auditor designation.

Today’s new engine of economic growth is innovative technology intensive SMEs. However, they have limited access to funding because of asymmetric information problems. Sharing of SME information helps reduce information asymmetry. This paper explains the Korean system of SME technology information sharing, as well as SME credit information sharing. It also provides theoretical analysis about the effects of the SME information sharing on banks’ credit analysis activities, based on Karapetyan and Stacescu (2013). Sharing of SME credit and technology information expands the data set of banks and it will enhance their credit analysis. In addition, SME information sharing increases banks’ investments in credit analysis activities. To encourage SME information sharing and production, the government can subsidize the production of SME technology information.

Teams play an indispensable role in helping an organization achieve its goal. Since constant interaction among team members is the cornerstone of team competitiveness, it is necessary for the team members to commit themselves to shared goals-team commitment, a type of positive, emotional attitude of team members. Constant interactions among team members, however, inevitably breed a byproduct called conflict. Though intra-team conflict has both positive and negative effects on team performance, little research has been done to clarify the roles that relationship, task and process conflicts play in team commitment.
This research is an empirical investigation of the relationship among the three types of conflicts－relationship, task and process conflicts－based on data collected from 232 R&D teams of 13 Korean companies. The analysis suggests that, while relationship conflict has a negative impact on team commitment, task and process conflicts have no significant impact on team commitment. As for the relationships among those three types of conflict, process conflict has positively influenced task, and relationship conflicts and task conflict also has had a positive impact on relationship conflict. Based on these results, this study has presented its implications and directions for future research.

Platform finance is emerging as an alternative finance for SMEs by suggesting a new funding source based on a new technology named FinTech. The essence of this business is the adapting ICT challenges to the financial industry that can adequately reflect risk assessment using Big Data and effectively meet individual risk-return preference. Thus, this is evolving as an alternative to existing finance in the form of P2P loans for Micro Enterprises and supply-chain finance for SMEs that need more working capital. Platform finance in Korea, however, is still at an infant stage and requires policy support. This can be summarized as follows:“Participation of institutional investors and the public sector,” meaning that public investors provide seed money for the private investors to crowd in for platform finance.“Negative system in financial regulations,” with current regulations to be deferred for new projects, such as Sandbox in the UK. In addition,“Environment for generous use of data,” allowing discretionary data sharing for new products,” and “Spreading alternative investments,” fostering platform finance products as alternative investments in the low interest-rate era.